


The Unheard Song

by AbelQuartz



Series: Selkie AU [2]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Creatures & Monsters, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Animal Transformation, Crying, Drowning, Friendship, Gen, Loneliness, Magic Revealed, Murder, Near Death Experiences, Selkies, Singing, Transformation, Trust Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-10
Updated: 2019-07-10
Packaged: 2020-06-25 22:05:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19754698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AbelQuartz/pseuds/AbelQuartz
Summary: [COMM] It’s been some time since Connie met the mysterious and elusive selkie on the beach that fateful day. Gaining the trust of her friend was easy, but as it turns out, getting the trust of his family is hard. There are secrets below the surface, secrets which could tear everything between her and Stephen apart…





	The Unheard Song

**Author's Note:**

> This is a sequel to "The Silver Boy," so head over there if you haven't already! Enjoy selkies.

The Maheswaran parents were surprised at Connie’s initiative to start doing her own laundry. Nobody in the household was susceptible to massive amounts of dirty clothing, but the severance between adult and child clothing made a tiny dent in the smoothness of the household. Connie was merely thankful that the salt smell was easy to get out of the clothing she brought. If she did laundry once a week, and met Stephen about the same time as well, then she could sneak under the radar without any problems. When she saw Garnet back in the early spring, the matriarch had clothing already underneath her sealskin, and Connie mentioned that to Stephen during one visit.

“So why don’t you have that?” she asked, patting the sand castle walls. “You know, wear something underneath.”

Stephen hesitated as he crouched, silently pushing more wet sand to make a parapet. He did that a lot, with his mouth open just a little, all his words caught on the points of his teeth.

“Discomfort, um…”

He sat back in the sand, tugging at the sweatshirt and shaking his head.

“Under the skin, you feel the thick? Like bad skin below itching,” Stephen said. “Too much. Human clothing is not selkie. Not real.”

Connie pressed him for more details about where Garnet had gotten her robe and where Steven might get his clothing eventually, but the boy had no idea. Garnet didn’t come up often enough for Connie to ask. There were times where they sat on the dock, and Connie would jump out of her boots at the sight of a giant dark body below the water. But then, the seal’s head would emerge, Stephen would smile and wave, and the massive figure would blow out air and glare at Connie with bloodshot eyes before disappearing underneath again. A couple months had passed and she still wasn’t used to their surveillance. As far as Connie knew, too, Garnet was the only one who was coming to check on them up close. Any darkness in the wave could be a seal spying on the kids, and even without Stephen with her Connie was wary of the ocean.

No matter how unknown the situation, it didn’t stop her curiosity. The colony of selkies was close enough for Stephen to swim, and that was all that she knew. Online caving communities showed no activity or exploration for the Delmarva coast. There could be potential islands and rock outcroppings leading to shallow caves, but nothing specific that Connie could see. Searching for detailed maps of the coast was impossible. Eventually, Connie had to give up. Even if she did find out where Stephen lived, she had a feeling she would be torn apart if she stepped foot into their world.

If getting information about the hideouts of mythological creatures was difficult, then finding out about the creatures themselves was next to impossible. What Connie discovered in books and online resources matched up only tangentially for what she found in her friend. Stephen, unlike the various male selkies in song and folklore, was not out to capture and wed her. He had stated that earlier, if she recalled correctly, but it also begged the question as to why seal-shapeshifters required a state-sponsored matrimonial ceremony. Maybe there was some binding magic in the ages of their ancestors or some other hooey like that. The fact remained that the ‘seductive aura’ of selkies regardless of gender thankfully did not extend to pubescent seals. Adult selkies had the tendency to journey and find spouses as they saw fit on the human land. But how did they get the information on how humans behaved in the first place? When Connie had taken Stephen to the pizza parlor, he acted more like a well-trained dog than a preteen boy. Blending in with the eyes and teeth didn’t seem easy, either.

Connie gave up. She didn’t need to be an expert on selkies to be friends with one. All that Stephen wanted was a human companion, and all that Connie wanted was someone her age who appreciated her. School was done for the season, finals were complete, and Connie could ignore her classes in favor of long walks to the beach.

Today was diffused. The sun broke through where it needed to, but a thin blanket of clouds was trying its hardest to keep it from scorching the earth. The young girl traveled through town with her backpack in tow and her hair tied back. Getting educated was fun enough, and giving was special in its own right. Maybe her teachers weren’t crazy after all. Connie crossed the boardwalk and started towards the familiar rocks.

Nobody came to that side of the cliff. The lighthouse wasn’t a tourist destination as much as the boardwalk and the amusement park. Instead of history, it was merely a relic of the old times, and around the back, there was nothing at all except for sheer cliffs and a beach that felt so isolated that Connie thought it would one day break off and drift out to sea, away from civilization, to leave waves slapping against the slate until the lighthouse fell into the eroded ruins.

Stephen would be waiting for her there. Connie felt her heart tap against her sternum in anticipation. It never changed.

Today, though, she had thought about something a little different. The Atlantic was cold, but she could bear it. Showering in colder water had helped her prepare, bit by bit, acclimation. Her selkie had blubber in and out of his morphology, luckily for him, and Connie was athletically lean for her age. 

Connie padded through the sand around the bend with the massive rock sheets above her on the left, and the gentle caress of the waves on the right. All the boats were on the other side of the bay. Nobody witnessed Connie sitting at the water’s edge and humming as she took off her shoes and socks. The water came up below her, then retracted its touch. Soon, Connie knew, it would bring a companion. She turned to her backpack and began to remove the towels and clothing as she waited.

The shallow waters were always pulling swimmers out to sea, but they were no match for the sleek seal body that powered through and leapt out of the water onto the wet sand with a happy chuff. Stephen had probably been watching her for some time, waiting to make his appearance. Connie laughed and held up a hand in protest of the wet splashes that followed. Without a human mouth, Stephen could only honk, pushing himself up to Connie flop by flop.

His happy pink mouth was open like a dog, his teeth now more jagged and animalistic. They were usually the last to go. So many parts of Stephen transformed at once that Connie couldn’t focus on just one. Garnet had split her skin open dramatically, but Stephen seemed to prefer to keep his features as they were. The front half of his seal body was the first to ease upwards, lightening and rounding into a human ribcage. Arms emerged where the fins elongated and took mass from the body. They rounded up into shoulders, sinking in the middle as Stephen bent his head into a neck, shaking it until a chin and jawline emerged. The half-human, half-animal midline was still shocking to Connie, but she forced herself to stare and accept it.

After all, it was a familiar face that came into being, once the muzzle had shrunk and the skull reformed, once the spine and tail had reconnected into a merfolk-like shape. The dark blotch of his nose turned into a gently freckled button, the lip reconnected and lifted to show closer and smaller teeth, and the beady eyes blinked into their unnatural silver. Stephen pressed his human hands into the sand and beamed at Connie. The whole process to come here took less than ten seconds. It was enthralling every time.

“Connie!” he finally said.

The boy cleared his throat, shaking water out of his dark mane. Transforming his vocal chords couldn’t have been easy. Considering that it took practice, and that the selkie species was transformative by nature, Connie hoped that Stephen wasn’t in any pain. He didn’t appear to be discouraged at all as he pulled himself forwards. Connie sat up on her knees and helped to reconnect them, hugging the moist selkie back.

“Hey there, Stephen.”

Hugging was new to her routine. She hugged her mother and father, and kissed them goodnight when she was little, but her family on either side was not physically affectionate to any significant degree. Meeting Stephen had opened her up to a moderately uncomfortably but necessary exercise. Research into seals had taught Connie that their colonies were no stranger to sleeping together and whatever the animal equivalent of cuddling was. Stephen had mentioned that, in their secret hideaway, he stayed with his guardians at night and they slept in their seal bodies for warmth together. Holding hands, nuzzling, hugging and even playfully biting were all in Stephen’s arsenal of affectionate weaponry. He respected Connie’s boundaries and became quite concerned whenever she pulled back, but over the weeks, she had become more and more comfortable with her friend’s physical needs. They were harmless.

Stephen released and reached over Connie for a towel. Wrapping a large beach towel around himself kept him decent for changing into human clothes. Connie stayed his hand, and the selkie raised his eyebrows. He turned away from Connie, and she was surprised to see his smile fall, redness peeking through his cheeks.

“It is, er, not proper, I had thought?” Stephen mumbled. “I don’t wish to be uncovered, in front of you, without the understanding of why there is a changing.”

“Well, you’re not the one who’s gonna be changing today.”

Connie smirked at Stephen’s tilted head, then let go of his wrist to push herself to her feet. Of course she hadn’t meant to make him embarrassed, but it was the nature of routine. Maybe in a couple decades she could deal with nudity without melting into an embarrassed mess. For now, it was time to show him just what she meant. The girl had chosen loose clothing for the beach, a simple blue t-shirt and tennis shorts. She reached down, and Stephen instinctively hid his face with one hand as she pulled it over and revealed the top half of her bathing suit. When Connie looked down, Stephen was still covered.

“Stephen, it’s okay. I’m wearing something. You can look.”

He trusted her enough to peek, and the selkie did a double take before he pointed excitedly.

“Oh! Like the humans, in the summer!” Stephen said. “I know, I remember!”

In his moments of watching humans vacationing at the beach, Stephen must have seen a bathing suit before, and thankfully he didn’t have any questions about it. Connie had prepared for a long line of inquiry about why it was so snug, or what material it was, or whether or not it was a part of her like the sealskin was part of him. All that was avoided, thank goodness. He twitched a little when Connie slipped off her shorts, but he was still smiling in relief once Connie was changed completely. Her one-piece was modest and almost professional, a sky-blue with the logo of a sun over her left collarbone. The girl adjusted her glasses and pulled her hair back, letting it all fall down over her.

“What do you think?”

She sat back down and felt the new grittiness of sand against her bare leg. Stephen pulled himself up and looked Connie over. She could tell that he wanted to touch the material by the way that his hands were digging into the sand, and that he also knew better than to bring himself to do any of that without permission.

“Why do humans wear these while in water?” he asked. “And why are there some in one single, and others in two small pieces?”

“It’s… Some people like to wear different things. When we swim, um, we have to cover our bodies, right? But real normal clothing is too heavy because humans…aren’t meant to swim like that. So we wear light things and tighter clothing so that we can go into the water and be able to move around! Some people like less clothing. That’s their thing, I guess.”

It hadn’t occurred to Connie that Stephen had no human concept of clothing. The sealskin was enough to cover what would otherwise be human indecency, and while he was in the water fully transformed, there was no need to worry about clothing whatsoever. Considering that Garnet had her robe on underneath, selkies must have some degree of understanding, but they were animals at heart. Their home was an ocean away from prying eyes. Connie wouldn’t be surprised if things were more lax in the colony.

For the moment, though, Stephen hesitated and nodded, his back fins slapping against the ground in anticipation.

“Do you wish to swim?” he said.

“W-well, that was the plan. Just to get out in the water.”

“With me!”

“Yeah!” Connie said. A smile broke over her face again. “You know, that’s your home, where you’re most comfortable, right?”

She already knew the answer. Already, Connie could see Stephen try to calm himself, to control the excitement of this playdate. The girl was feeling antsy herself all things considered. She had never been out in the open ocean before, not like this. Her swimming strength was limited, but her companion was stronger than any lifeguard. Connie knew she was in good hands, and Stephen was more than ready to protect her.

“I will help,” Stephen replied. “The humans and water are not always getting along.”

“Let’s see if I can prove myself first,” Connie said, pushing herself to her feet.

The first thing she had to do was take her glasses off and set them on the backpack. Maybe in the future she could talk to her parents about prescription goggles, but for now, the world was just a little blurrier. The second thing she had to do was continue to smile outwardly as she kicked herself in her brain over and over.

What did that mean, to ‘prove herself?’ Connie offered a grin to try and show her faux-cockiness, and Stephen smiled back genuinely as they moved to the water. The girl’s feet sunk into the wet sand, accompanied by the wet percussion of her friend pulling his body back into the surf. She watched him turn his head and shove himself straight into the waves. The sleek, spotted body wriggled and kicked up mud as he got into water deep enough to actually swim. 

The first caress of coldness across her toes made Connie hesitate. The water was indeed not friendly to human bodies, not like it was for a blubbered selkie. She stepped forwards, up to her ankles, up past her shins, wishing that the Atlantic was more easily warmed by the sun. Her skin absorbed the light and begged her not to take the plunge into the waves. Connie forced herself to breathe as she watched her legs prickle with goosebumps in the shallows. Looking up, she saw Stephen breach, shaking water out of his hair. He smiled at her, eyes wide and inhuman, with cheeks burning red against the rest of his paleness.

Proving herself meant being with Stephen in this moment. The ocean was not going to get any warmer, and Stephen was not going to leave his home. Connie took a deep breath. The bag she had left at the top of the tide had books and snacks and all the things that she had to teach Stephen about her world; it was time for her to learn about the boy’s.

With as much momentum as she could, Connie pushed against the sand of the shallows and broke into a run. Her swimsuit darkened with the splashing foam and the crashes from her footfalls. Each percussive step became harder and harder to take until finally, Connie closed her eyes and leapt forwards.

The waves overtook her. Even on a calm day like today, the current underneath the surface was enough to grip, and Connie had only a second with her arms stretched before her before the wind and sunlight were wrenched away by the tide. She hit the water and felt the smack of her body deafened by bubbling silence. Her body froze for a moment in time as the icy water surrounded her completely. She didn’t dare open her eyes. The sand was only a foot or so below her, and the surface closer than she could tell. When Connie started to swim, her muscles ached with the sudden discrepancy between the air and the water, begging her to find another path. Connie pushed with her legs and held her breath tight, pulling herself through the open water and reaching, reaching out for her friend until her lungs were burning.

Her shoulders hit something soft. Two hands held her in the darkness. Connie pushed forwards, but opened her eyes now. The boy’s pale belly shimmered with murky greenness underneath the water. Stephen was there, guiding her, pulling her now back towards the surface. Bubbles in her ears sounded off in an effervescent whirl until finally, Connie let herself break through the waves. 

She gasped. The seconds that she had spent under the surface had lasted forever, and she was still chilled to the bone. Connie coughed and put her legs down - and the sand was just out of reach. She had to tread water, moving her legs in slow circles as she shook her head. When she blinked, she could see only the blurriness of Stephen’s face smiling at her. He didn’t even have to move to stay afloat. The boy reached underneath her arm and held her effortlessly as he pushed her hair back on either side.

“We are still in the shallows!” he said, bobbing up and down. “Do you wish to be coming to the open?”

“S-s-stephen, I think I might need help. This is cool, b-but I’m not used t-to the water, and I can hardly see.”

Glasses were something with which Stephen was modestly familiar, but apparently not so much that he had remembered that Connie needed them to see at all times. He nodded sagely, then turned his back and let go of Connie.

“Hold on to me. I will take you.”

“I - okay.”

When Connie wrapped her arms around Stephen’s torso, she immediately felt warmer. The boy exuded warmth in heart and body, and any apprehensive embarrassment she felt was gone in the comfort of his person. Her feet and shins brushed up against the back of his lower half, and Connie felt a new shiver. Stephen wasn’t human. He leaned forwards in the water, and Connie felt him propel forwards. He wasn’t human at all. She was riding a magical creature as he kicked his back fins, undulating his body slowly to take her out to sea.

“Take a breath, Connie.”

The girl opened her mouth and closed her eyes. Her hands gripped Stephen tightly as she held her breath, and in an instant he pushed them both below the surface. Blue light and static filled Connie’s world as she was surrounded by the ocean. The gentle rumble of waves above were overtaken by the swishing noise of Stephen’s tail as he swam forwards into the water. His body was built for this. Everything about him was connected to the ocean. Connie could feel her lungs start to protest, but she only had to hold as Stephen moved them forwards. Her hair trailed behind them. She wished that she could open her eyes.

Stephen lurched upwards, and Connie had only a moment before Stephen propelled them out of the waves and briefly into the air. The boy whooped in the one free moment of clarity before they smacked back down onto the surface. Connie’s eyes opened involuntarily to see the trail of bubbles behind from where Stephen was laughing underwater, and the utter vastness of the blue around them. The Atlantic opened up into nothing but pure water. Connie didn’t dare look down. Stephen was slowing up as is, and he came to the surface in peace, letting them breach. 

Connie gulped down air, forcing herself to relax her grip on Stephen’s chest. The selkie didn’t appear to mind, and merely giggled as he paddled to a stop. He relaxed his fins, and soon was bobbing in the open water with Connie beside him. All that she could see was the mass of black hair, and as he turned, the boy’s presumably smiling face.

“You did it!” he whispered. “We’re free!”

Free was one word for it. When Connie turned back - keeping one hand on Stephen as she tread water - she could clearly see the rising blur of the cliffs and the lighthouse. It seemed so close, but the ocean floor was so far below them. Diving down would yield nothing for her; Stephen could probably touch the sand beneath them easily. If she had glasses, then she could dive down and experience the world as he did, perhaps, seeing him fully and watching him in his element. For now, all she could do was feel it. Her legs has to kick to keep her afloat, while Stephen merely bobbed gracefully. He was one with the ocean. But Connie was no longer an intruder. She was his guest.

Connie suddenly realized that she was no longer shivering from the cold around her. The immersion and the swim had lasted for long enough to get her used to it. If she focused, she could feel herself want to reject the temperature and crawl back to the warm sand and the shore, but Stephen was more important.

“This is amazing,” she whispered.

“Connie, I am...so glad, to be sharing. You are a friend.”

“I know that, silly. And you’re my friend, too!”

“You show me the human things, and now I show you the water!”

“What do you do out here?” 

Asking the question made Connie feel suddenly silly. A selkie could transform and walk on land amongst the humans, but there was no way that a human could don a sealskin and go down to mingle with the selkie colony. She briefly wondered if Stephen was intending, right here, to break the rule and take her down there anyway, and her heart skipped a beat. He couldn’t possibly be that disobedient, no way. But she had been surprised before. Making a friend who happened to be a half-seal shapeshifter was one of many surprises in her life. Still, that seemed unsafe for the moment. Besides that, Connie didn’t really know what to do with Stephen, what he intended for her. He could catch fish, dive, and swim better than she ever could. Participation was moot, to say the least.

“Will you… Connie, there is something to show you.”

“Oh - okay?”

Stephen held her arm with one hand as he brushed the stray hairs from her face. They were facing each other now, close by in the water, and Connie wished she could see his face. Could he see underwater with those silver eyes? She had no idea what the extent of his powers were.

“Breathe, deeply.”

Connie took in one huge lungful, gasping before Stephen pulled her under, inviting her to sink. Once more, the word vanished, and water climbed past her neck, into her ears, covering her face in coldness for a brief moment before the coldness became reality. The girl knew she had to keep her eyes closed, even as she wondered what Stephen was going to do.

The selkie took her by the shoulders. Connie did the same, out of reflex, and Stephen bent his arms to draw her close. As they sunk, she felt him twist his fins, turning them as they slowly, slowly became immersed in the deep. It felt like a dance. In the silent depths, Connie realized that this was a dance, without music and without rhythm, with only the water to guide them. It was in this dance that Stephen held her, and he raised his mouth up to her ear.

Notes emerged in the water. She couldn’t hear them, not as the music she could read on a sheet, but Connie knew they were there. Her eyes almost shot open at the sound of Stephen singing. His voice was as chipper and soft as it was above the surface. The siren melancholy of the ocean enraptured her. He was making noises, inhuman noises, and despite their alien nature Connie could understand everything perfectly. Emotions transmitted through his mouth and into her brain, into her heart, with perfect clarity. The lilting loneliness broke into hope, broke into togetherness as Stephen sang of their friendship together. Connie heard the song of sleepless and energetic nights thinking about seeing Connie in the morning. Not only that, but Connie curled her body up at the image that came with Stephen’s song. In her mind’s eye, the music conjured an image somehow, something so real she could touch, from Stephen’s past. The girl saw her friend and his guardian Garnet standing on a rocky outcrop as she taught him about what humans were, about how humans treated each other. She taught him also through song. The passage, the truth, it all came from Garnet’s voice as she let her hands relax and her melody tell the story. For each part, Stephen sang back, with his eyes closed in concentration. That was how they learned, how they passed down stories - through song. Connie had never heard anything more beautiful or dangerous in her life.

When she opened her eyes, the salt stung and her lungs were burning, but Connie’s heart swelled at the sight of Stephen’s open mouth, little bubbles rising between his teeth as he sang to her. Garnet’s tutelage passed to and through her. Before they rose to the surface, Connie let her dangling legs brush against Stephen’s body, and she took her hand and placed it on the selkie’s waist where human skin transitioned into seal fur. The boy’s song skipped a note, and he opened his eyes. In the blur of the water, Connie watched him pause before he mirrored her motion and lowered a hand to the girl’s waist as well. It was a song and a dance, a human formality, and one onto which Connie knew she was projecting fantasy imagery. But his hands and his body were so warm, and his song so sweet. She wished she could be with him here forever.

The impact came from her right. Connie had just closed her eyes when a force like a stone flew from out of the blue into her ribcage. The girl was knocked from her peaceful dance by the blow, her eyes flying open as she was knocked away from Stephen. A sickening crack came with it, and Connie floundered as a white blur whipped away into the water.

As the song left her ears, Connie shouted involuntarily and felt water rush into her mouth. The blur of air bubbles leaving her lungs was enough to make her realize that she had been on reserves for the past few seconds. However long she had been under, it was too much time, and now she was out. Connie saw black on the edges of her vision as she tried to kick to the surface. Immediately, the pain in her chest made her stop and clench tightly. Her rib was definitely broken, and swimming was almost impossible.

Connie clawed regardless, trying to get past the pain and back to Stephen. But with her blurry vision and her lack of air, she could barely tell which way the surface was. Only the glimmer of the sun somewhere above the surface guided her. Desperately, the girl pulled herself upwards. Her arms felt leaden, like the sea was reaching out and dragging her by her skin.

The song was long gone now, and she was drowning. Bubbles from the surface were barely audible to her, overwhelmed by the sheer size of the ocean and her own failing senses. Blood pumped in her ears, but even that was starting to fade. Connie had to trust her own body to get her to the surface. Where was Stephen? Why wasn’t her coming to get her? Connie wanted to badly to breathe. Her body no longer felt like she was swimming, but rather that she was writhing in pain, pain from the abandonment, pain from exhaustion, all carrying her body fruitlessly inches closer and miles farther from the sunlit world above.

As soon as she let her arm drop, another force came from the water and took her in stride. There was no more air to push out of her lungs. Two arms wrapped around her torso and hugged her tightly as she was carried, faster than she had ever been carried before. Sound rushed back to her in an instant before she broke the surface, and the air flooded her body once more.

Connie felt like she was barely alive. The girl coughed, retching up seawater and hacking into the air as her body adjusted. She couldn’t open her eyes yet. The mess of her hair drifted all over her head, weighing her down and obscuring whatever she would have been able to see if she had the vision for it. But as Connie came to, she felt herself still carried, realizing that she was gripping a warm body which was heaving in panicked breaths. As she was dragged through the water, Connie let herself catch her breath until she was merely heaving.

“St… Stephen?” she mumbled.

Her feet eventually felt the drag of the sand. Stephen’s hands had held tightly as he swam for dear life until finally they were in the shallows again. Connie opened her eyes as he slowed, and then the grit of the beach sand brushed up against the back of her thighs. She released Stephen before he released her, and he still held on as he pulled her onto the beach. The waves finally became nothing more than caresses on Connie’s ankles as she turned onto her front. In the sunlight, she realized how cold her body had been in the water, and she felt herself shivering violently. She let herself fall, exhausted, onto the sand, and winced as her broken rib reminded her once more of its existence.

“Connie, I am - “

Stephen panted over her, putting one worried hand on her ribcage. Connie wished she could see well enough to raise a hand and tell him that she was fine, that she was okay. The boy leaned over her still, raising and curling his shaking fingers in panicked inaction.

“I - I can go to get help?” he offered. “Find clothes, put on - get human help, Connie, I am sorry, I am so sorry…”

“No, you’re…”

Connie coughed again. Her voice felt hoarse and her throat felt like it had been scrubbed with sandpaper. Stephen whimpered and stroked the hair out of her face. He was so pained to have to leave her that he couldn’t move. Connie blinked and attempted a smile, trying her hardest to lie about her situation for his sake.

“It’s not your fault. It was - whatever that thing, whatever hit me. I’m okay, I’m alive. I promise.”

Stephen went quiet for a moment. Connie closed her eyes and laid against the sand, taking the moment of silence to rest and breathe carefully. First aid was easy when you had a stash of bandages and a forest in which to scrounge. Broken bones were a worst-case scenario Connie couldn’t remember a thing about, and certainly not a broken rib. What was she going to tell her parents? That was probably the easiest part, actually. Riptide currents had bashed her against a rock, that was all. It was a necessary lie, to protect Stephen, to protect herself. 

“Okay, Stephen,” she finally sighed, “can you get my glasses? I left them with my backpack, um, I think on top of my clothes, I don’t remember.”

“Mhm.”

As the selkie flopped off, Connie moved her hands to her torso and pressed as gently as she could. There was definitely a bruise forming above the break. She didn’t want to feel anything more, because she knew that the sensation of her own floating bone would make her retch, and that was just going to cause more pain in a chain reaction.

But the mystery remained of what had hit her. It probably wasn’t a shark, because the speed and impact weren’t any behaviors she had heard of before - although Connie knew she wasn’t any kind of shark expert. A large fish could have done the trick, speeding through on its way to warm waters. Stephen, though, had been frightened, and was still shaken. He could have been just scared that Connie was injured, though. There were too many questions. Maybe Stephen had an idea when he got back. Connie blinked up at the sun and ran her fingers down her ribcage. The one thing that she knew for sure about her assault was that she had been hurt. Badly.

The shadow of Stephen rose above her as he knelt. Thankfully, the distance between them and their landing hadn’t been far. The round blur of her lenses came closer and closer until Connie finally felt the temple tips slip over her ears. The world was in glaring focus again. Stephen’s face hovered between her and the sun. Connie could see clearly now that his eyes were wet from worried tears. While he had been over by their belongings, he had changed out of his skin and was wearing a pair of shorts she had brought, with the dense cloak draped over his shoulders. 

“Thank you.”

“I - Connie, you need helping. I can help you there, to, to - “

“But you can’t go with me!” Connie said. “If you take me there, who’s going to help you get back home? And what will you do about your skin?”

“It can be staying with you! Connie, please!” the boy insisted.

“I can...I think I can make it, it’s just a rib. I can walk.”

Stephen shook his head in desperation, on the verge of tears. She had never seen him so helpless or frustrated. Her heart and body ached.

“Stephen, I’ll be fine, I mean it,” she said. “Just promise me you’ll watch out for whatever hit me, okay? I don’t want you getting hurt out there too. Who’s gonna drag you back to the beach if I’m not here?”

Connie laughed quietly, but Stephen was stone-faced. The mention of her aquatic assailant had made the selkie slowly fade into worry. The girl had seen her friend make this face before, but she couldn’t remember where. He chewed on the inside of his mouth for a moment, then turned out to face the sea.

“I will stay.”

He wasn’t kidding, and he wasn’t going to take no for an answer. Something had changed, and Connie pushed herself upright carefully. 

“Stephen? What’s wrong?”

“She’s coming.”

“Who, Garnet? Okay, it’s good that she’s around - “

“No!”

The whisper was harsher than he had anticipated, she could tell, but Stephen’s fear was more palpable now. It also occurred to Connie that he was hiding something, and her stomach prodded her as she realized what it could mean - what  _ ‘she’ _ could mean.

When Stephen talked about his guardians, Garnet was the only one he mentioned by name, and even then not often. There were three main matriarchs that Connie knew of, and all of them inspired a kind of stillness in Stephen when the two children were together. Coexistence with humans was still forbidden to a certain extent. Regardless of what Garnet might have said, there were other possibilities and other selkies, beings who might not be aware or interested in keeping the peace. Connie put a hand on Stephen’s shoulder. The boy’s arm twitched in recognition of her touch, but his eyes remained fixed on the sea.

A splash of white breached the water. For one moment, Connie recognized the same shape that had swirled above her, the same smoothness that had vanished into the ocean once the girl began to drown. The sunlight bleached the tips of the waves the same color as the approaching creature’s body. Stephen pulled his skin around his right shoulder like a shield, crouching in the sand like he was going to jump in front of Connie and defend her from anything that might emerge.

“She hurt you,” Stephen mumbled. 

Where Garnet had emerged as a seal in full rage, the selkie that swept up from the sea stood tall as a human immediately in the shallows. She emerged so suddenly and gracefully that Connie swore she manifested from the sand itself. Her white sealskin was already draped around her shoulders like a hooded shawl, connected with what must have been sinew at the neck. Her hair curled out like messy wings from her head, reddish-brown, as free as the wind. She had a sharp nose and even sharper cheekbones, with pale and even skin, a dusk to Steven’s rosy highlights. A plain creamy dress dipped into the surf, only to be dried in an instant, with a dark vest laced over her chest. She paced over to where the children sat in the sand, and stared at Connie intensely. But she was looking right through her, calculating, concentrating. The eyes that passed over Connie were bright blue, ringed with columns of brilliant yellow.

“If you can take yourself to care, I will return Stephen home.”

The voice was curt and oddly melodic, but threatening in a way that even Connie could feel. Stephen was as silent as he had been before, almost curled up on his toes. There was a strict history behind this selkie’s words, Connie could feel it.

“Stephen, we’re going,” the woman repeated. “Put your skin on and leave her.”

In cautious defiance, the young selkie inched backwards. Connie could feel the stiffness of his guardian’s presence as he came up behind Connie and put his hands underneath her armpits. With a grunt, Stephen pulled upwards, and Connie pushed however she could to get herself upright and standing. Her legs were still wobbly from the sea, but she had to manage, to face down the selkie like Stephen was doing. Even still, she felt his hands trying not to shake as he moved them to her shoulders and stared over, as silent as the beach.

This was a response that Connie recognized. The pale woman before them reminded her of her own mother, mixed with the frigid nature of her strictest teachers at school. Behind it all, there was a unique maternal fear, or at least anger. Connie could tell that she needed Stephen to do exactly what she was saying - and more to the point, that she expected Stephen to do so immediately. His resistance was an act beyond rebellion, but she couldn’t let on that it was moving her. The standoff was painful to be in the middle of.

She had dealt with Garnet before, and she could deal with this again. Connie wasn’t afraid of the selkies any longer. The girl planted her feet as much as she could, standing up straight.

“He’ll go when he wants to go,” she said.

Immediately, the selkie woman froze. It was like the world had tilted on its axis and winter had fallen over the beach. Stephen moved out to stand next to Connie, but his head was lowered, and he held on to his friend’s arm with a shaky grip. Connie felt her bravado faltering as true silence washed over them. Even the sunlight couldn’t budge the tension.

“I have made my position clear where you stand,” the woman said at last. “Do not intrude into these waters again.”

Connie opened her mouth. The pieces were coming together stiffly.

“You - you were the thing that hit me in the water.”

“And thus you were dissuaded.”

“You could have killed me! I was drowning!”

“To protect the lives of the colony.”

“But I wasn’t doing anything wrong! Stephen wasn’t doing anything wrong!”

As his name was brought up, Stephen dug his toes into the wet sand and glanced aside. Helping Connie to stand was the only thing he could do in resistance to this woman, it seemed. Connie’s anger was boiling away the stiffness with which she had been struck a moment ago. It was unthinkable to her that she could have literally been killed for the act of hanging out with her new friend. The unfairness was unparallelled. Stephen took a nervous breath, edging out in front of Connie. 

“She did not know - she is not knowing anything, Pearl,” the boy mumbled. “It was the song. That’s all. To show her the singing.”

“Which you should not have shown at all,” Pearl snapped.

Stephen’s response had awakened a maternal drive somewhere in the selkie’s tone. Even Connie felt herself start to cringe at the voice, that plaintive sharpness that evoked concern but lacked empathy. There was no warmth for the boy, and his demeanor curled in shame.

“The human curiosity is natural at this point, but the relationship is one-sided. You are never, ever to show her the secrets,” Pearl continued. “Our colony, our ancestry, everything has been hidden from them. Do you know why? It is for safety, the same safety which has kept you well for your entire life - and you throw it away for the first human you’ve seen!”

“It - isn’t like that…”

Priyanka Maheswaran and her lesson about grades, Pearl and her chastisement about safety, the mothers and their safeguards - it was all the same, and Connie forced her eyes not to well up behind her glasses in the flashback. Stephen was already on the verge as she was. The humility made them both feel small, Connie knew, small and worthless. She could tell that her friend had been given many a speech like this before, and that it continued to hurt.

“She swore to secrets, but you have sworn, too. Garnet taught you the sanctity of your song, has she not? And Amelia strengthens your voice, to what end? And the girl knows your voice and your passage. It is not for humans to hear. It is not a song for them to understand. You have broken a bond. I have never been more scared - nor ashamed.”

Garnet had only made mention of the selkie secrets inasmuch as the mention of selkies themselves were supposed to be kept away from other people in Connie’s life. The more that Pearl spoke, the more that Connie started to think. When she looked at Stephen, the boy was silent, with his lips curled as he held back a sob, fat tears dripping down his cheeks.

Pearl was right. If Stephen’s silence was an answer, then the question of what he had done was in the open. What Connie had heard under the surface was completely forbidden, an act that had been posed to her as a friendly gesture of goodwill, that she had turned into a dance beneath the waves. Stephen had never mentioned song before, and he had never told her about learning and training through it. Connie realized why. There were more secrets under the surface, she was sure, but the one which was broken between them was the passage of song. Connie felt her body shudder at the thought. How private was the sharing of song? What did it mean?

She had to stand up to this. Pearl relaxed her body as if to take a step forward and detach Stephen from his friend, but Connie turned and pulled on Stephen’s shoulder, forcing him to face her. The adult sucked in air in ferocious offense. It took all the willpower in the world not to turn and apologize, to resist groveling like she would with her mother. She felt like she was going mad. When he looked up, the fear in Stephen’s eyes asked the same thing. Both of them knew it was a fool’s errand to stand up to their authorities, but Connie knew she had to try.

“Stephen,” the girl said, “why did you sing to me down there? What did it mean? Please, you have to tell me the truth.”

Even when he looked at Connie, Stephen seemed ashamed. But he swallowed regardless, and despite Pearl’s seething, he opened his mouth to speak.

“It is a passing of words and images, nothing more. But humans… They are hearing other things. They are drawn. They, um….”

Connie paused in disbelief. The other word was frozen in her mouth, and Pearl’s bitter addition confirmed her question.

“Sirens,” the woman muttered.

The cross-mythology explained the connection. If a selkie seduced a human and taught them about their song-sharing, then it would make sense for other humans to create stories about a race of sea creatures that sang men to their deaths, exaggerated versions of the truth. Connie didn’t actually know for a fact that sirens didn’t exist, or that there weren’t other creatures in the world like selkies that she didn’t know about, but this wasn’t the time to ask.

The girl felt her heart twitch for a moment. She looked cautiously at Stephen, and she could see him burning with shame, confirming the logical leap. He was too young and certainly too innocent to seduce her, but the song was an act that had been performed with romantic intent in the past. Other selkies had made entire civilizations believe that they sang humans to their death from it. Stephen was only acting on friendship, but he had clearly taken it a step to far for Pearl. As far as Connie was concerned, it hadn’t been a problem until now. She had to trust that Stephen’s intentions were pure. But of course they were. What would he gain except closeness with his friend?

Each realization only made Connie angrier about the impact in the ocean. She turned to Pearl and felt her hands balled into fists.

“That doesn’t mean you have to try and kill me!” she shouted. “Why couldn’t you have just swam up and stopped up, or talked to Stephen? Why did you have to hurt me?”

“It was a decision of celerity,” Pearl snapped. “My only choice was to separate Stephen from harm as fast as possible.”

“I wasn’t going to hurt him! Didn’t Garnet talk to you?”

“Garnet’s decision did not take into account the fact that he would share the rites with our enemies.”

“Connie is  _ not _ an enemy!”

Both parties turned to Stephen in surprise. The boy was red-faced and still shaky from his chastisement, but not so much that he couldn’t defend his friend against his mentor. He wiped his face with his free hand and shook it off, holding Connie with the other.

“Humans never hurt me. Connie never hurt me! But you are talking like she will betray me, and I know better! Humans don’t want to hurt us at all. They don’t know our folk exist.”

“There is a reason for that, Stephen,” Pearl said.

The woman’s teeth were almost bared as she spoke, hands curled as she tried to contain herself. Connie wanted to tear into her, but she was fine letting Stephen take the reins.

“There is no reason! In the past there might have been, but those are word stories. I watch humans! I know Connie! If I can show you the truth then you can see you were wrong to hurt her. I know you were wrong.”

Pearl’s anger seemed to boil up inside her and tighten her skin for the longest second of Connie’s life. And then, suddenly, the selkie relaxed. She looked down at Stephen as he glare softened into exhaustion and her bitter strictness into what Connie could only interpret as a kind of pity. Stephen was equally taken aback by the transformation and paused. He relaxed his grip on his friend and took a step back, opening his mouth as if to apologize, then closing it again. Neither of them knew exactly what to say. Connie cleared her throat and began to offer defense, but Pearl raised a tired hand.

“You were so small.”

The immediate turn took Connie by surprise. Pearl took a step backwards into the water and breathed, as if bracing herself for some ultimate attack. Connie looked at Stephen to see if he knew what was going on, but the selkie merely watched uncertainly. It felt like the woman was about to do something dramatic, something terrible, but she merely extended a hand as she slid her skin off her shoulders. The cloak fell for a moment, then caught on an invisible line around her waist. It wrapped around her legs as she walked, the skin shifting and tightening together. Connie watched as Pearl waded backwards up to her waist, then fell into the sea. She raised one hand and beckoned for Stephen and Connie. The dress had been bisected somehow, leaving only the flow of the upper half and the vest to keep it secure.

This time, Connie knew she wanted to keep her glasses on. She marched as powerfully as she could with her injury, but felt a tug. She turned back; Stephen wasn’t budging. He gripped the skin that was draped around his shoulders, hesitant as he watched his guardian float. The girl hadn’t expected Stephen to turn about from defiance to uncertainty so quickly. It struck her that Pearl just might be right, and she shuddered at the thought. But whatever she was doing, it wasn’t sitting right with Stephen. She squeezed his hand, and he stopped staring to look her in the eyes.

“It’ll be alright,” Connie said.

“I… I don’t know…”

“I promise.”

Stephen didn’t change his face or his posture, but after a moment, he nodded, and squeezed Connie back. Together, with the selkie boy supporting her against the gentle buffet of waves, they walked back into the water. The coldness was no longer a barrier to entry, but a warning against interaction, like a thousand stinging needles against Connie’s skin. She shivered as she stepped on the sandbar. Pearl merely watched, drifting with her tail curled underneath her, waiting to take her down.

“I was told to wait until you were older,” the selkie said to Stephen as the children approached.

They were up to their chests now and slowly edging out to sea. The waves here lapped against them, currents pulling Connie’s body against her will. The cold soothed some of the pain in her torso but not enough to make her forget. Her teeth were beginning to chatter again. Stephen held on to her hand regardless, and once more was averting his eyes from Pearl.

“But it seems we have no choice,” Pearl continued. “You know one human and you think you know them well. These are the humans you first met.”

The pain that laced every syllable of Pearl’s sentences froze Connie to the bone. The children watched in shock as Pearl closed her eyes and descended, slipping underneath the surface. Connie gave Stephen a look, but the last sentence had taken him. He nodded down to Connie and licked his lips. His silver eyes darted in fear, in confusion, and he looked more like an animal than ever.

“Breathe with me.”

At the same time, the two opened their mouths and took in air. Connie held on to her glasses and closed her eyes as she let the coldness engulf her once more. When she opened them, everything still burned, but she could see Pearl practically sitting on her tail, coiled on the white fur below her as she watched Stephen and Connie come down. The world became silent once more here in the shallows. It was more tumultuous than in the open water. Seaweed clusters waved in the tide and the crash of the shore carried through like a low roar. But the three of them were engulfed, and Stephen was still holding on.

Pearl opened her mouth and began to sing.

The bubbling surf crashed into a thunderstorm. From underneath a pier, Connie’s eyes saw the ship tied up and low on the rocking waves. The night was as black as the sunlight had been white above them. Oil lamps and powerful fishing lights turned the deck of the boat into a stage. The rocky shore was too dark to show any civilization, but this was nowhere close to the world of Beach City, nowhere close to their coast at all. These waters churned with the black seaweed and the filthy algae of what felt like another world. Connie felt a different coldness around her, the coldness of night, but she knew these were not her eyes. She was scouting the memory from the shoulder of a hidden figure, and she realized that it was possibly Pearl herself. The rules were blurred and unclear - could they share the memories of others, or just their own? But each image, each rock and thunder roll and plank and wave, they were all so clear that Connie knew it couldn’t be anything other than a firsthand experience. Stephen had shared the generalities of his lessons and his emotions. From each note in Pearl’s song, Connie felt the flecks of foam expertly crafted on her person as well as the horrible fear that came with the scene before her.

There were several men standing on the deck of the rocking ship. They were bearded and bundled and muttering among themselves. Connie could see their mouths moving, but no sound could be heard over the storm. Through the memory, the girl could see a figure on the deck who appeared to be crouching, and she nearly gasped as she realized that it was a grown selkie, a man, with his head bowed and his arms clasped to his chest. Thick, lengthy locks fell over his back and shoulders in stark contrast to the militaristic men surrounding him. In a flash of lightning, Connie saw that his silken fur on his lower body was matted and bloody, from the struggle that had probably taken place to capture him. Other glints from around the boat showed that the men were carrying fishing spears and cleavers, long hooked pokers worn from years of use, blades at the ready to hack whatever came onto their ship. They all seemed to be standing guard and staring at their captive. The men’s attention turned to the shore, and Connie could see another figure as she turned her head, tromping down whatever hillside path led to this wretched place.

He was dragging something behind him. As he came closer to the light, the men parted, allowing this stranger to jump down from the dock onto the boat. He looked to be a younger man, with a brown duster jacket and white scarf. The whole outfit was distinctly elegant and out of place for a fishing village, but he didn’t seem out of place at all among this company of scoundrels. The captured selkie looked up, and Connie’s throat tightened as she saw what the human held in his hands. He raised the object, and over the storm, the selkie on board threw back his head and wailed, shouting one long, animal howl that tore his voice open in anguish.

It was a sealskin, torn apart by human hands, bloody and ruined. The young man showed no emotion as their captive sobbed in the shadows of the figures around him. The selkie shook, frozen in mourning. Even though she was but an observer, Connie instinctively felt her heart hurt as if she knew everything that had transpired. Pearl knew, and it was in the knowing that hatred arose, that fear took over her soul. Connie watched in sickened horror as the young man let the skin fall to the floor. He extended his hand and was handed a cleaver. With the knife gripped on one side, he stepped forwards and grabbed the selkie by the hair with the other. The creature barely had a moment to protest before the human slammed the blade into his throat. He stiffened, and the young man pulled back on the scalp to dislodge his blade. The knife was tugged out, and its human bearer brought it down again and again and again. Each dull thud was lost to the thunder and the ocean.

Another sound came from the ship. The whole time that he had been butchered, the selkie had his arms close to his chest, and Connie only now observed that he had been clutching an object. This object began to cry. Connie already knew what was happening on the boat. She wanted to get out of this memory. Stephen had never seen the truth of his parents until now, and she needed to comfort him. She needed to leave and take him and work through the revelation. Pearl was showing too much. The young man on board mentioned something to one of his companions, who reached down and took the baby from the dead selkie’s arms. The body fell over, and the man threw the infant into the sea.

Time skipped to seconds after, back underneath the pier, with the boat emptied and the lights extinguished, with no life save for the plants swaying below and no light except the bolts that tore through the clouds. The sound of water was intermingled with the loud and frightened bawling from the baby in the bearer’s arms. It opened its eyes and stared up at the singer. Raggedy black hair and the perfect sealskin were still stained red from the blood of the man who had been slaughtered above. In the memory, Stephen reached up towards Pearl, tiny hands grasping for someone, anyone to hold.

The song ended. Connie opened her eyes again and immediately felt the sting of salt. She struggled to find the sand and pushed towards the surface. Her lungs burned and her body was stiff from being in that same position. Only seconds had passed, but her breath was already punished from her injury, and she had to get air. She broke the surface and coughed, standing up in the water shakily. Her hands came to her face to hold her glasses, making sure they were still there. The brightness that surrounded her was instant and as painful as her throat as she breathed again.

Pearl had no such impediment. Connie allowed herself to be led by the shoulder and turned around in the waves. The girl looked to the other side, and saw Stephen with Pearl’s hand around him. For the first time that Connie had known him, he was truly expressionless. His cheeks were sallow, his mouth small and pulled tight. The three of them walked back to the beach in absolute silence. They stepped out of the shallows and onto the sand, then walked up the beach to the dry sand. Pearl stopped and let the two children sit down. Stephen still had his skin around his shoulders. Connie sat next to him. She wanted to put an arm around to embrace him, but she didn’t have the strength. Everything hurt.

Pearl knelt in the sand, transformed and elegant. She watched Stephen and Connie for a moment, waiting to see if they had anything to say before she sighed.

“He was entranced, and she spurned him,” the selkie said. “So he waited until her pup was born, and slaughtered her and her mate. We took that pup, and carried him as far away as we could from that wretched world. There are hunters still. There are quarrels and lovers and risks that we cannot take.”

She looked at Connie, and the girl felt suddenly small. Pearl was starting to come to her conclusion, but she had still almost killed Connie, and the human didn’t know what to take away. The past was so much bigger than she had expected.

“I - I’m not like that,” Connie mumbled after a moment. “I don’t want to hurt him. I don’t want to hurt anyone.”

“And in a year?”

Connie opened her mouth and only felt confused bubbles emerge. Pearl stared down Stephen, who still hadn’t moved.

“In ten years? In twenty? When Stephen grows and finds his partner, can you still be with him then? Or will you be consumed by human jealousy? Will you follow the path that killed his parents, that almost killed him and our entire colony? You think that if I had hurt you then I would have been the monster. And you, the human, sit there and know now that it was the love of humans that stole a family from Stephen and stole generations from us. Do you blame me still for my fear? Do you blame me for my love?”

Connie had nothing more to say. The cove was washed in sunlight and the sound of crashing waves. No voices emerged from anyone in the trio until Connie heard a sniffle from her right. Stephen hid his face in one hand, kneeling on the beach with his eyes closed and his sealskin draped over his bare torso, gently swaying with the wind. The revelation had shaken him to shame. Pearl had been right - he wasn’t old enough. But maybe it was time regardless.

“Will you at least talk with Garnet, and Amelia?” Connie asked at last.

Pearl stood, her body as stiff as a board.

“What is there to talk about, child?”

“About - all of this. That you told Stephen about... everything, that you hurt me, that… I don’t know, that I understand. At least a little.”

“And what could that possibly change?”

Connie chewed on her bottom lip for a moment, then shifted into a sitting position again, upright and wincing. When she sucked in air, Stephen’s face jerked up. The whites of his eyes were tinged pink from crying. As soon as he saw Connie, he hesitated, and looked back at Pearl with hesitation in every muscle. But Connie took the hand that had been on his face, and moved it down to her stomach, to the crack in her ribs. It took a moment for Stephen to accept the touch. When Connie let go, his palm was flat, comforting against the drying bathing suit. Connie knelt her head and raised her hand behind Stephen’s. Her fingers slid into the damp tangle, and she pulled them together, forehead to forehead. Stephen started to shake from the buildup, and a little hiccoughing sob popped from his lips. Then, after a moment, he stopped, and sniffled, and the two of them rested, hands on their bodies and hearts beating back from the brink of panic. Connie felt her body regulate. Pearl stared at the meditation, her eyes narrowing, but Connie didn’t care. She had no idea what she was doing. As long as it brought Stephen back to her, back to a place of safety, it didn’t matter.

“You okay?” she whispered.

“I’m okay.”

“You sure?”

“I am. I… I am.”

When Connie turned her head to Pearl, Stephen turned too, and the pair stared upwards as Connie caught her voice. The selkie’s intense and baffled expression almost made her stumble, but her thoughts came clear and she knew that the moment would pass.

“I don’t blame you for protecting Stephen. But I wish you had met me first, or at least tried. He only knows me because we share our own pain. And we’re trying to fix that, together! It might take a long time, but… I’m here to help him, and maybe - I can help you, too. So that you don’t have to break my ribs again, right?”

It was like all of Pearl’s blood had turned to ice. Stephen was staring at Connie, and the adult selkie was frozen in incredulity at the words. Connie merely extended a hand, and out of her heart, a smile came to her face.

“No secrets. No betrayal. I want to know all of you, and help all of you. Stephen and I are still going to be friends, no matter what. If you’re his family, then I’d be happy to be your friend, too. Because there’s pain in your heart, too. Right? And maybe, I can gain your trust by helping you through it.”

The scene stayed motionless, with Connie’s hand outstretched, until Pearl took a half-step backwards. It felt like forever until she reached out and touched Connie’s hand, fingertip to fingertip, nothing more than acknowledgement. It was one step in the right direction. The selkie didn’t smile, but she looked at Stephen, utterly baffled. Something had changed, Connie could tell. Whether it was for better or for worse would come with time. Pearl let go and curled her hands, taking a shallow and shaky breath.

“Get her healed, then come straight back home,” she muttered.

With that goodbye, Pearl turned and marched straight into the water. Before she dove, with her skin falling off her shoulders, the selkie looked back at Connie with piercing incredulity. Connie merely smiled back, waving softly. Pearl whipped around and dove into the shallows. Moments later, the two children could see a flash of white against the waves, and then nothing.

Stephen finally released the breath he had been holding, and he pushed his head against Connie’s fingers with a grunt. 

“She never does that.”

“Never - what, monologues?”

“Never loses her words.”

Well, maybe there was a victory to be had, and another comparison to be drawn. Pearl really was like Connie’s mother in a lot of ways, minus the tragic backstory of her child and the murderous xenophobia. Connie rubbed the back of Stephen’s head and smirked as the selkie boy instantly relaxed, grunting under his breath like a dog as he closed his eyes. They needed some time to relax. Unfortunately for Connie, she really did need to get her body checked out. The human withdrew her hand and patted Stephen on the shoulder.

“Can you help me back up?”

It took several minutes for them to get gathered and to get everything back to the boardwalk. Limping along was still painful, especially in the heat and with her sandals, but Connie knew she had to get home somehow. She kept the bathing suit top and slipped her shorts back on, and Stephen folded up his skin and wore the t-shirt to look vaguely civilized. At the edge of the road, the pair finally rested, with Connie’s arm around the selkie’s shoulder. Stephen tried to keep a vigilant face, but was definitely concerned for his friend’s health.

The stretch of shops in one direction had a number of citizens who could help, and all of them were probably either too busy to actually do so or would call an ambulance, which was far from necessary. The Big Donut was closed for the day so the employees could take some sort of summer recess, and there weren’t any cars around to flag down. Connie briefly considered calling her parents, but both of them were working as well.

“Connie, are you well? Do you need resting?”

“I’m okay, Stephen. Just working through it.”

Tires squealed around the corner, or perhaps it was the metal paneling finally coming apart as the van edged onto the main road. Connie recognized the tan vehicle and its star-studded and fading turn-of-the-century stripes. She was more than grateful when it slowed, then revved up to pull in front of the children. Stephen stepped backwards and gasped, but Connie held him tightly. It was rare to see a true family friend on these streets.

The engine turned off and the door slammed, and an older man huffed as he jogged around to the front of the car. His old marathon shirt was clean but wrinkled, and his shorts had seen the better days of raggedy edges. He was wonderfully tan wherever his skin showed, though, from years of a beach life and good genetics. Stephen was staring at the length of hair that trailed down the man’s back, matching the golden brown of his goatee as it gently wafted in the wind.

“Connie! Are you kids okay? You look exhausted!”

“Actually, Mr. Universe, I’m really glad you showed up. I, um, had an accident while swimming and I think I hurt myself on the rocks. Definitely broke a rib.”

“You shouldn’t be walking at all!” the man said, instantly opening his passenger side door. “Get in, I’ll take you down to the hospital. And I’ll page your mom or something if she’s there. Is your friend hurt at all?”

“Oh! No, he’s, fine. Right, Stephen?”

The boy was still cautious, still shaken, but he nodded regardless as he stared at the ex-rocket. Greg cleared his throat, rubbing the back of his head and doing his best to be gregarious.

“Well, um, maybe I can give you a ride back to your folks, then? Come on in, plenty of room. You’re Stephen, huh? I’m Greg, but you can call me Mister Universe.”

Greg stuck out a hand, and Stephen stared at it. Connie jumped in and took the hand, graciously pulling herself into the man’s grasp and into his van. Stephen, with Connie’s backpack strung over his shoulders, watched the proceedings.

When the two children made eye contact, Connie saw that he was still struck by what he had seen, and what he knew about strangers. Pearl was right, certainly about the people that had done the evil deeds to Stephen’s parents. But he had trusted her, and she wanted so desperately to keep that trust. Right now, they needed to get to a hospital, and things could be worked out later. The girl offered her hand, and Greg watched as she gestured to her friend. Stephen paused, then took one step forwards, and another, coming up to touch the side of the van. Greg watched without pushing, without saying a word. He glanced at Connie for a moment, but turned himself back to Stephen with a smile.

The song had been heard, and Stephen had no reason to trust humans for as long as he lived, Connie understood that. Beyond that, beyond the twisted hypnosis that had taken in so many in the past, there was still an underlying love in the present. When they were together, Connie knew that she couldn’t lose a friend, not like this. And when Stephen looked between the two, slowly, a shy smile started to spread across his face. The force that had brought them together was stronger than anything outside that threatened to tear them apart. Stephen was smart enough to know that, to know right from wrong, genuine help from deception. There would be songs he could sing to the guardians back home, and Connie could already hear the inhuman notes, see the visions of trust between them.

“Mr. Universe,” Stephen repeated.

“That’s right! Lemme get the door for you.”

The man opened up the side door, and behind her, Connie could hear the sounds of the two getting settled, as Greg explained the history of the van, the end of his career and the start of his time here in Beach City. Stephen took it all in as the words faded to images, and the images into mere thanks. The girl felt her ribcage and winced softly again. Pearl had been so scared, and now, Connie didn’t know what the woman was feeling at all. If she only knew that Stephen was getting into the back of a strange human’s van, well, poor Greg Universe might be down more than one rib.

But she wasn’t here to take him. She trusted Connie enough to let her go this far, and now, Connie needed to maintain it. There was no better person for Stephen to meet than Greg, she knew. The girl relaxed against the seatrest and sighed as deeply as he injury allowed. Trust, trust was still being built here. That would be the next song that Stephen would have to sing, and Connie knew that as much as she could, she needed to help write it with him.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to @nerdyjello for commissioning this work! It was an arduous task but well worth it. And thank YOU all for reading <3


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